SEO Recap covering September 24, 2026: Google's September 2026 spam update and multimodal Search Console reporting

Built by Stephanie Chung·8 min read·12 stories

Daily summary of what matters in SEO, GEO, AEO, and AI search generated with Claude Code (beware of hallucinations)

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) & Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

AI Answers Strip the Signals Users Rely On to Judge Them
Source: Search Engine Journal

  • A Wharton study by Melumad and Yun (7 experiments, 10,462 people, PNAS Nexus, October 2025) found people who learned from AI summaries knew less and wrote sparser, less original advice than those using Google links, even when the underlying facts were identical.
  • Even when the model supplied live web links beside its answer, participants did not click through to the sources.
  • Pew tracked 900 US adults across 68,879 Google searches in March 2025: with an AI summary present, people clicked a normal result on 8% of visits versus 15% without, clicked a cited source on ~1% of visits, and ended the session on 26% of pages versus 16%.
  • A Microsoft Research and CMU survey of 319 knowledge workers on 936 real AI uses found higher confidence in the AI predicted less critical thinking.
  • Treat AI citation as presence inside the answer rather than a referral channel, and reposition depth content as the front door since 101 material is now consumed before a lead ever arrives.

AI in Search / AI Overviews

Google Admits Search Console Can't Track AI Overview Position
Source: Search Engine Journal

  • John Mueller said on Reddit that tracking traditional rankings for AI features is hard to do usefully, and that Search Console still treats an entire AI Overview as a single block.
  • Under block flattening, every link inside an AI Overview is recorded at position 1 regardless of whether it appears prominently or is hidden behind a "Show More" toggle.
  • Impression rules compound the distortion: default AI Overview links log impressions on load even if unseen, while links behind an interactive toggle only count once expanded.
  • Cited studies include a 61% drop in AI Overview CTR from Seer Interactive and a field study showing AI Overviews cut clicks to organic results by ~38%, with AI Overviews appearing on 21% of searches.
  • Treat AI visibility as a yes-or-no question of whether your brand is cited, and measure outcomes like visits, inquiries, and conversions rather than average position.

Google Details Faster R4T Diffusion Query Fan-Out Framework
Source: Search Engine Journal

  • Google's Retrieve-for-Train-Diffusion (R4T) is a 3-stage system combining reinforcement learning, synthetic data generation, and a 53.9M-parameter diffusion model to generate query fan-outs at scale.
  • The approach distills the behavior of a larger, computationally expensive model into the small diffusion model, which generates all directions in a single parallel pass for a 12-20x speedup over autoregressive methods.
  • At scale, autoregressive fan-out latency expands to nearly 50 seconds under large batches while R4T stays between sub-second and a few seconds, which Google calls production-ready.
  • Training balances 3 rewards: groundedness, diversity (measured via Vendi Score), and alignment to the original query to prevent semantic drift.
  • The paper was published in March but Google blogged about it on September 15, prompting speculation it has been deployed. Researchers warned it needs bias audits in sensitive contexts.

Google Tests AI Overviews Below Hotel Knowledge Panels
Source: Search Engine Roundtable

  • Google is testing moving the AI Overview from the top of the page to a bottom-right position for hotel searches, appearing under the hotel knowledge panel.
  • The change may be related to other shifts Google is testing with AI Overviews inside local panels.

Technical SEO

Search Console Adds Multimodal Filter to Performance Report
Sources: Search Engine Journal · Search Engine Roundtable

  • Google is rolling out a multimodal filter globally under the Web search type, splitting Web into text-based traffic and multimodal traffic where an image was used in the search.
  • Multimodal covers searches via Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search, and the Chrome right-click "Search this image" feature.
  • No query data is available for multimodal traffic because these searches mostly use images, so the queries tab is disabled for that type. Reporting is page-level only.
  • Mueller confirmed the data is brand new and was not previously included in Web totals, so some sites may see corresponding shifts in impressions and clicks.
  • Multimodal reporting is also rolling out to the generative AI performance report, which still counts impressions rather than clicks.

Google Adds Creator Property to Video Structured Data
Source: Search Engine Roundtable

  • Google updated its video structured data documentation to document support for the creator and author properties in VideoObject.
  • The update also clarifies supported interaction types for the interactionStatistic property. Changes can be checked by comparing the live and archived docs.

Organic Search & Algorithm Updates

Google Rolls Out September 2026 Spam Update
Sources: Search Engine Journal · Search Engine Roundtable

  • Google began the September 2026 spam update on September 24 at 9:15 am PDT, applying globally and to all languages, its fourth spam update of the year after March, June, and August.
  • The rollout may take up to 2 weeks, longer than the previous 3 (March took 19.5 hours, June ~2 days, August ~2.5 days). Mueller confirmed the longer window is expected.
  • Google gave no detail on what the update targets, saying only that it is a normal spam update. It does not specifically target link spam.
  • Sites hit should review Google's spam policies. Recovery can take months as automated systems relearn that a site complies.
  • Barry Schwartz notes the volatility seen before the announcement was not the update itself, but volatility spiked the day after launch.

Chartbeat Reports 40% Google Search Decline for Publishers
Source: Search Engine Journal

  • Chartbeat's 2026 Publisher Playbook reports a 40.2% year-over-year decline in Google Search across its publisher network from July 2025 to July 2026, up from a 21.9% decline the prior year.
  • Google Discover's year-over-year decline widened from 6.6% to 34.3%. Google Search fell from ~9% of network pageviews in July 2024 to 5% in July 2026.
  • AI referrals grew 8x over 2 years but still make up just 0.01% of traffic, and declined across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini in 2026, with ChatGPT the top AI traffic driver.
  • Dark social grew from 7.1% to 11.3% of pageviews, direct from 13.5% to 15.9%, and internal from 37.9% to 40.4%. Loyal readers kept overall pageviews stable.
  • The playbook advises treating SEO as one channel among several and shifting resources toward audiences a publisher can more directly influence. The data skews toward news and media sites.

Ranking and Discover Volatility Spikes Ahead of Spam Update
Source: Search Engine Roundtable

  • Significant Google ranking volatility began around September 22-23 and continued into the 24th, which many tracking tools registered as an unconfirmed update before Google confirmed the September 2026 spam update.
  • Publishers report Discover traffic collapsing quickly, with stories that once held for 24 hours now flatlining within 1-3 hours since late August.
  • WebmasterWorld chatter cites drops of 48-80%, halved ad revenue, and near-zero sales from Google traffic, alongside complaints of spam-filled Discover feeds.
  • Many in the community expect a confirmed core update soon and view the string of unconfirmed updates as a possible preview.

Cutting Agency Client Churn in the First 90 Days
Source: Search Engine Journal

  • A 2026 Focus Digital churn analysis found the first 90 days is peak churn risk across every agency model, and agencies running formal 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day check-ins report lower first-year churn.
  • Nail the sales-to-account handover with a detailed brief and a joint call so account teams and clients hear the same scope, and send a welcome email within 24 hours of signing.
  • Structure the window in phases: week 1 kickoff and success plan, week 2 baseline audit, days 15-30 early technical wins, days 30-60 content and authority strategy, days 60-90 scaling, day 90 executive business review.
  • Deliver visible early wins (indexing fixes, redirects, canonicals, title tags, GA4 tracking) and weekly updates so clients never wonder whether work is happening.
  • Retention tactics that get missed: weekly 3-5 minute Loom videos, a shared roadmap, celebrating small wins including AI citations, continuous education, and leading indicators like indexed pages.

Google Business Profiles Tests AI-Set Business Hours
Source: Search Engine Roundtable

  • Google Business Profiles is testing a feature that lets merchants describe their opening hours in plain text, with AI converting them into a structured format for the local panel in Search and Maps.
  • The tool aims to save small businesses from setting each day's hours manually and improve hours accuracy.

Bing Tests Hover-Expandable Sitelinks
Source: Search Engine Roundtable

  • Microsoft is testing a Bing sitelinks variation that expands to show descriptions under each sitelink when a user hovers over it.
  • The test was spotted by Sachin Patel, who posted a video of the interface in action.
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